St Mary's Road, East Hendred, Wantage, OX12 8LF

01235 833342

office.3855@st-amands.oxon.sch.uk

St Amand's Catholic Primary School

Religious Education at St. Amand's

In RE Rabbits Class looked at the Paschal Candle in Church and then designed their own. Three children's designs were chosen and the talented Mrs Kerner-Bignell painted their design.

Building the Kingdom Programme

This year our main focus is Oracy for Advocacy. We are encouraging and enabling children to use the gift of their voice to speak for change and to speak for those who cannot.  In the first session children spoke about their chosen subject to an audience. Next, they chose a peer mentor and prepared to talk about an aspect of Catholic Social Teaching. The mentors did a wonderful job of encouraging, supporting, listening and advising their peers. They gave their time and patience.

On 27 February, the six children each gave two minute speech to a room full of children and unfamiliar adults. We invited 3 other Catholic schools to St Amand's for the morning with Sr Judith. Children were amazing and it was fantastic to hear children speak confidently and passionately about an aspect of Stewardship, Human Dignity and Option for the Poor. The event was a great success. 

The next event will hopefully be a trip to the Houses of Parliament to present to MPs, their views about the kind of leadership they would like to see today.

Advent 2022

Daily messages were delivered to the classes from young Prophets in Year 2.

A Year 5 child wrote a modern-day, relevant sermon that John the Baptist might give to us today.

Rabbits class visit to church to learn about what it means to proclaim God's Word with Fr Andrew.

Laudato Si'

During the first two weeks of the Autumn term 2022, our whole school RE teaching was inspired by Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si'. Each class learnt more about Pope Francis, how he was inspired by St Francis, St Francis' canticles and the CST principle: Stewardship. After this we continued with the creation unit in RE. This was a whole school four-week cross curricular topic on biodiversity. Each class chose an area to explore further such as: the destruction of the rainforest, pollution of the waters and extinction. Rabbits and Hedgehogs class visited the Living Rainforest in Newbury too, which enhanced their understanding and learning.


Year 6: destruction of the world dance

RE Curriculum Overview

Religious education in Catholic schools aims to promote:

  • Knowledge and understanding of Catholic faith and life;
  • Knowledge and understanding of the response of faith to the ultimate questions about human life, its origin and purpose;
  • The skills required to engage in examination of and reflection upon religious belief and practice.

In the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, religious education is primarily taught through the God Matters scheme.

This year instead of Prayers, Saints and Feasts we taught a Catholic Social Teaching unit in Term 2. The Year 6 dance at the end of the CST unit (above) was one way that children showed an understanding of how the world should be and how it is now. Others chose to design posters, give a speech, write a rap and a song.